Celebrity Sightings and All-Around Excitement

Last night, as my family and I walked up to the entrance of the new, always-bustling Urban Cookhouse restaurant in downtown Homewood, I was momentarily stunned to see Vern Yip from HGTV's Design Star and Deserving Design programs right there on the sidewalk. It took me a split second to register who it was—and the fact that he was wearing a t-shirt and was existing in three-dimensional real life (rather than wearing a suit and tie on televsion) threw me off—but indeed it was Vern. Apparently he paused to read the restaurant menu and owner Andrea Snyder spotted him, ran outside and convinced him to come in and eat (how's that for Birmingham hospitality?). Not sure what he's doing in town but there are hints on social media that HGTV is filming at a house in the area. Hmm...

Here at the magazine we received a stack of glossy advance copies of City Guide 2010, our fantastic resource guide to the region. Everyone's voice pitch reached near-squeal decibels as we flipped through the magazine—I think people are going to love it when they see it. We certainly did.

And now we're back at work putting the final touches on the August issue (it's a Back-to-School extravaganza) and planning the launch of our new iPhone app.